jonwallacedesign - blog

The jonwallacedesign blog is moving...

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:14:00 +0000

Hello peeps, we have had a great few years with the blog being hosted by Google but we have now decided the time has come to move away from the Google Blogger platform and host the jwd blog within the newly launched http://www.jonwallacedesign.com website and as of 27th November the blog will be found on the jwd website.

Thanks Google Blogger for a great platform but it's time to take the blog inside our own systems and provide you readers with a 100% bespoke and richer experience.

Keep em peeled from 27th November onwards...

Christmas is nearly with us!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:52:00 +0000

It's nearly that time of the year again when we all decorate our houses, wait for the tubby fella to come down the chimney and drink far too much falling over juice at the office party! To help celebrate the festive period this year, why not treat your customers / clients with a fantastic festive treat - we have some cracking ideas for great festive e-cards / games / emails / viral campaigns so if you don't have an online present / greeting sorted for your customers / clients this year get in touch and we can help make this Christmas a very memorable one.

Presenting: the new jonwallacedesign website

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Firstly, we do apologise for being so quiet since the summer months! We have been very busy with a wealth of client work and also spending any possible available time on the design and development of the new jonwallacedesign - digital design studio website… so… apology over, now onto the main event…

Since jonwallacedesign - digital design studio launched in December 2008 we have used the same website to promote our latest projects and allow interested parties to find out more about how the studio runs and what we offer as a design studio. The original site was lovely when first crafted in late 2008, but now, nearly two years on it is really overdue a face-lift and development/code overhaul to bring it into line with current jonwallacedesign - digital design studio branding and our code development ethos. A year in the planning, design and development phase(s) and we (our own harshest critics) still love to look at it! This is remarkable and a testament to how good we feel it is!

The new site is built on a hugely powerful CMS framework enabling the team at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio a very simple bespoke planned/designed workflow to add in new clients / projects as they come on board / get delivered; this helps take the pain away from keeping the site up to date!

The site is an evolution of the jonwallacedesign - digital design studio brand, carrying through the vibrant and evocative deep reds with a simple, yet refined rigid grid based layout complemented with typography to die for, alongside large images of the stunning portfolio work, which quite literally sell themselves. Aside from stunning designwork the site utilises some great jQuery functions to allow the site to really come to life and jump out of the browser.

The site features some of the studio's very latest project work, beautiful branding, elegant emails, magic mobile apps and wonderful websites, the new site has it all, check it out and get in touch if you would like the jonwallacedesign - digital design studio touch applied to your next digital project, we are looking to book up studio time for the coming new year now so don't delay and get in touch today!

So... we are very happy to unveil and present to you, the brand new jonwallacedesign - digital design studio website - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com, we hope you enjoy browsing through it as much as we have enjoyed planning, designing and building it ourselves! Drop us a mail if you have any comments as we are always eager to tweak and tailor things to make them perfect for one and all!

We are very happy with everything as it stands, but as we are such perfectionists we are still working on a few other bits and pieces, so keep your eyes peeled for the launch of the new jonwallacedesign iPhone site and a refreshed blog in the coming months.

http://www.jonwallacedesign.com

Enjoy the new site!

» iPhone 4 Wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:19:00 +0000

Got a sparkling new iPhone4? Want to jazz it up with a sexy jonwallacedesign - digital design studio wallpaper?

The team have been working up a gorgeous wallpaper which we have released for £FREE public download... You can now nestle your icons on top of it on your own sexy iPhone!

Download today and take advantage of that fab new retina display!

» All your contacts in one address book?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:19:00 +0000

For some time now, I have trawled the web and peppered other like-minded persons with questions about the best way to consolidate the many address books we all seem to have in this digital age; the usual response was… "I don't know but would love to find out!"… Well a few years back along came Apple's MobileMe which, from what it says on the tin, will do the job, but for £60 a year… In this day of Open Source I was quite frankly not interested in that as a viable option - especially because you are then tied into the Apple ecosystem for content, not just your hardware!

The search went on… and I found a great CalDAV service via the open source project Chandler Project - http://chandlerproject.org // This fab solution provides 1 single calendar in the cloud, to which you can then subscribe all your client devices (Macs, PCs and smart-phones) and, bang, you have the same calendar across the board and any changes are echoed accordingly - genius!

The next step was to find a similar service for my contacts… email addresses everywhere, phone numbers in my mobile, landline handset etc etc… a true mess! Now how could I get all of these together in one address book? It was going to be a big effort to consolidate it all into one place but 100% worth it.

After the arrival of my new iPhone4 earlier this week, once again I found myself trawling the web in search of this mythical service and I came across Funambol (http://www.funambol.com) - an open source Mobile cloud synch and push service, offering support for email, calendars and contacts… In essence, MobileMe minus the £60 and without being tied into the Apple ecosystem… what a find! I couldn't believe it... I signed up for the free trial and got my iPhone synching with the online Portal which controls all the data within minutes - simply by downloading the free app to my iPhone, entering 2 credentials details and following a very simple online setup.

Next step was to enable my email client (Mozilla Thunderbird) to receive and synch / publish my contacts from there back to the online portal and to my iPhone - again this was a very simple process using the wide range of plugins/addons available - more can be found here - https://www.forge.funambol.org/download/#desktop

This again was a short setup process and soon I had all my disparate devices sharing the large number of contacts I had… Next step was to login to the portal and consolidate the list to remove any duplicates of information spread across multiple entries - a long task, but well worth it!

With the consolidation process complete, I now have a cloud synched contacts address book which all my devices can share, add to, edit and remove from whenever they want! What a find Funambol was. If you are seeking a similar solution you should check it out today as it's surely one of the best solutions out there… if not the best! // http://www.funambol.com

P.S. You can even download the entire app and serve it on your own server if you want - now that's what I call a fab solution!

jonwallacedesign - digital design studio would like to personally thank the guys at Funambol for creating such a great tool, which has finally solved our many years of contacts mayhem!

» Game on with Neon Play

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:44:00 +0000

As the World Cup approaches jonwallacedesign have great pleasure in announcing the launch of the new Neon Play website // http://www.neonplay.com. Following on from the branding project earlier in the year, we have been busy working with the guys at Neon Play to design, develop and deliver an outstanding website. The launch of the new site coincides with the launch of Neon Play's first iPhone game Flick Football which you can download from the iTunes App store today!

The new site features a gorgeous UI along with some fancy CSS3 and jQuery to help create a sumptuous interface that we challenge you not to want to play around with! (there is even a bespoke iPhone optimised version of the site for those who want to check it out on their iPhones) It's not all just aesthetics here either, the site is built on a very solid CMS foundation, allowing the team at Neon Play to keep the site bang up to date and keep you guys with new games to keep playing!

More information about the new site can be found here - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/portfolio_websites_neonplay.html

Game on ;]

» Milton Keynes City brand launches

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:43:00 +0000

As the sun continues to shine gloriously across the UK, we have great pleasure in taking the wraps off the brand identity work we created at the end of 2009 for Destination Milton Keynes. We are very happy to announce that the new logo designed by the team at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio has now officially been launched and is being used all over the place! It was a great project to be involved in and will certainly be one of most widely received pieces of work we have created to date. If you are interested in reading a little more about the project and how we created the new Milton Keynes City brand please follow this link to view the case study on the jonwallacedesign.com website.

Read more about the brand launch on the Destination Milton Keynes website here - http://www.destinationmiltonkeynes.co.uk/News/Latest_News/romance_milton_keynes

As the sun keeps on shining we keep on delivering and we will soon be announcing some more fantastic projects. Remember if you want a piece of the action do get in touch today - studio@jonwallacedesign.com

» April project launches

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:43:00 +0000

It's been a busy past few months at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio and in the past week we have had the pleasure of branding / designing and building out websites for iPhone games company Neon Play (http://www.neonplay.com) and garden design company Rebecca Smith Garden Design (http://www.rsgardendesign.co.uk). Both sites feature brand design work along with website design and development. Take and peek and let us know what you think! We will be adding case studies into the jonwallacedesign - digital design website over the coming weeks. Remember if you or anyone you know needs a new brand identity / site please do pass on our details!

» Redesigned and developed jonwallacedesign.mobi

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:27:00 +0000

Back in the summer of 2009 we launched a mobile friendly version of jonwallacedesign.com (see this previous blog post http://www.jwd-blog.co.uk/2009/08/jwd-goes-mobile.html) - This was a good quick fix to allow users to easily experience jonwallacedesign - digital design studio on their mobile devices.

Since the turn of the year we have been slowly enhancing the jonwallacedesign - digital design studio brand and wanted to reflect these enhancements into the pocket sized version of jonwallacedesign.com. The new iPhone and above (e.g. 320px wide and above) version of www.jonwallacedesign.com features some great new CSS3 tricks to render drop shadows and embed our house fonts for all to view. The new mobile site has been optimised for iPhone viewers and above meaning that we now have a tailored experience for those browsing on a modern mobile handset with deep-links into the main jonwallacedesign.com desktop site for those that want to explore further; we see this mobile site as a shop window which peeps can easily browse and then follow up their browsing in earnest on their desktop machine to get the juicy details. We have tied in some clever detection scripts into www.jonwallacedesign.com to serve up the mobile version of the site to users browsing on devices with small screens which enables us to best tailor the site to the devices on which users are accessing the site.

Next time you are browsing on your iPhone do have a look - http://www.jonwallacedesign.mobi - and remember if you have a site up on the web and your current design/development agency have not suggested a mobile version of your site get in touch and we will happily discuss this with you ;] Happy browsing!

» New Live Talkback site launches

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:43:00 +0000

Things at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio are still very much on fire with lots of fab client work in the studio. We are very proud to launch the new 2010 Live Talkback website featuring a design and build refresh from the previous site created in 2009.

Dive into the jonwallacedesign website to find out more about the project - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/portfolio_websites_livetalkback2010.html // alternatively why not have a look for yourselves at http://www.livetalkback.com! Enjoy and get voting!!!

» New CartoType website launches

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:58:00 +0000

Wow, what a fast start to the New Year! We have been super busy throughout January working on some great projects, one of which; the new CartoType website has just launched. Check out the new gorgeous design and effortless CMS workflow development -> http://www.cartotype.com, or if you want to read some more about the project why not check out the case study in the jonwallacedesign - digital design studio website - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/portfolio_websites_cartotype.html

Lots of new projects are deep into development and will be launching in the coming months so stay posted!

» From nowhere to hear in a year….

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:12:00 +0000

An introspective of Jon Wallace's business development throughout 2009.

What a difference a year makes… Wow how things have changed, this time last year I was saying my farewells to a great bunch of folk at Adobe and about to embark on a radical switch in career direction.

Previously I had always aspired to work at the biggest agencies in the UK if not the world, working with some of the best clients and the best talent in the digital design field - learning new tips and tricks with every project and aiming to outshine all the competition agencies and winning award after award… These days my aspirations are very different. After a year of setting up jonwallacedesign - digital design studio I can safely say it has been the best career move of my life! I love being my own boss and the transparency of working directly with clients; being able to affect and influence their businesses; such an empowering feeling, which as a designer who's main role in life is to take a brief from a client and make them beam with sheer happiness as a result of the hours of hard-work, is what it is all about for me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my days working with the likes of Matinee, Panlogic, Graphico, glue London and Adobe but the feeling of winning clients, designing, developing and delivering directly back to them gives one a sense of satisfaction not achievable within a large agency/organisation.

One thing I am continually aware of from running jonwallacedesign, is not standing still, running your own business means you can never stop marketing yourself, looking for your next projects and bringing new clients on board. I guess this works well for me, as I have always been the kind of person to never stand still or stop wanting to work - I was always in the office hours before the rest of the team and could never stop thinking about work even after leaving the office! My desire to continually improve means whenever client work is not taking my attention, the next version of www.jonwallacedesign.com is on my mind, the mobile spin off version, what other business streams we could tap into and where the next new client might be resting… These things keep the mind focused at all times.

Having spent working 10 years for others, I can easily see me working for myself for at least the next 10 if not 30! If there is one piece of advice I can offer other designers who are considering taking the plunge and setting up for themselves, I would say go for it; as long as you are prepared to work harder than you have for anyone else and are 100% into the idea, if you can't oblige with these two things then it might be best to take that next role within an agency as nothing less than 100% effort works here.

So, as it's Christmas time, I raise a glass to the future and would like to clink a glass with my clients who have helped make the maiden year of jonwallacedesign - digital design studio a real corker and look forward to a prosperous 2010 - a clink for you if you are reading this and looking for a digital team to help make 2010 a special one for you too.

Merry Christmas - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/xmas2009/

» Are you a talented freelance designer/developer

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:25:00 +0000

If you are... we would love to hear from you! As things hot up at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio we will have requirements for design/development assistance to help knock our clients socks off! So if you are looking for some new challenges in the New Year and would like to work with the team at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio then please do drop us a mail with your details. studio@jonwallacedesign.com

» Merry Christmas from jonwallacedesign

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:30:00 +0000

We never think it's too early to start celebrating Christmas, so with that in mind, please check our our festive message and enjoy a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/xmas2009/

Raise a glass and have a very Merry Christmas!

» Jon Wallace interviewed on Creative Boom

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Creative Director Jon Wallace, was recently interviewed by Creative Boom website (http://www.creativeboom.co.uk) to give a little insight into the creation and running of jonwallacedesign - digital design studio. Jon talks about his career to date and the joys of running the studio at jonwallacedesign. The full interview can be found here - http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/bath/2009/12/08/spotlight-jon-wallace-digital-designer-bath/
Many thanks to the guys at Creative Boom for running the feature!

» Festivities at jonwallacedesign

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:31:00 +0000

Things at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio are beginning to get all festive. Check out http://www.jonwallacedesign.com to have a sneak peek! Keep a close eye for more festive treats throughout December...

» Are you ready for the festive season?

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:08:00 +0000

So, it's nearly that time of the year again! People are going mad shopping online and in stores, purchasing giant turkeys and enough booze to fuel a nuclear submarine! Are you ready? Have you considered your clients this Christmas? Have you got them anything? A present? A card? In these tough economic times perhaps you could think about providing your clients with an online present - a festive Christmas card, or Christmas game? If you are behind the game and have not sorted this yet then get in touch (studio@jonwallacedesign.com) as we would love to help you out! Remember your clients are for life, not just the last job - keep them sweet with a festive treat from jonwallacedesign - digital design studio.

» jwd site refresh!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Hello one and all, trust all is well with you and yours! It has been a very busy past few months at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio, with lots of client work being delivered and loads of enhancements being made to the jonwallacedesign.com website. We are now very happy to announce that the new version of the jonwallacedesign.com site is live along with lots of new portfolio entries to salivate over! Check out the new work for Live Talkback, FCM-I, Oppian Systems and PrimeAce - Web and Mobile design / development out of the top drawer! Do remember to get in touch if you have a digital campaign coming up that needs some special treatment. Keep an eye out for some new portfolio examples launching in the not too distant future also! Some big things in the pipeline...

Enjoy the new site and get in touch if you have something to say - www.jonwallacedesign.com/contact.html

» Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Wow... What a difference! It may look 99% identical and feel like you have just spent nearly £30 on pure Apple Marketing genius when you look at it on surface level but the improved performance of Snow Leopard over its summery friend is remarkable! Talk about fast! I reckon we are now 20% faster per day... ;] To all those worried about updating - We have noticed no problems as yet - Defo work the install, so stop waiting and get on with it! P.S. With this increase in productivity we are always looking to do even more work... So do drop us a mail if you have something coming up and you need a digital design team to knock your socks off! -> studio@jonwallacedesign.com

» jwd goes mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:42:00 +0000

So we have finally got round to getting our jonwallacedesign - digital design studio mobile site up and running. Fire up your mobile device and have a good look around - www.jonwallacedesign.mobi // Remember if your current digital design team don't consider mobile as an important delivery channel you are talking with the wrong team... Drop us a line today to find out how important mobile really is to your business!

» Past few months!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Sorry we have been so quiet in the past few months - things at jonwallacedesign - digital design studio have been very busy with many new clients teaming up with us to work on some fab projects. News of these projects will drop here when they go live in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled and remember if you want a piece of the action get in touch today and we can begin planning how to knock your socks off too! ;]

» Tweet tweet tweet...

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:11:00 +0000

So... It's finally happened and we now have a jonwallacedesign - digital design studio Twitter set up. We had to go with a slightly odd name as the guys at twitter will not allow you to have an account name long enough to satisfy our requirements to jonwallacedesign.... so Follow our tweeting on http://twitter.com/jwd_

For those eagle eyed followers, you will remember we did say we would never set up a Twitter account... Well with so many people now following the online phenomenon we felt it's an advertising and marketing trick not to miss out on... So here it is... Enjoy!

http://twitter.com/jwd_

» On the look out for new projects

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:02:00 +0000

As we enter the summer months, we are planning ahead a few months and on the look out for any new and exciting projects with both existing and new clients. If you have something new and exciting and need a design / development solution (be it web / online ads / mobile or anything else digital) that will blow the competition away then you need search no more... jonwallacedesign - digital design studio will sort it for you! Do drop us a mail / call and lets discuss! Look forward to hearing from you soon... studio@jonwallacedesign.com

» Happy (half) Birthday jonwallacedesign!

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:32:00 +0000

As we enter July (btw. where has this year gone exactly???) It's time to wish jonwallacedesign - digital design studio a well earned half year Happy Birthday, my business is 6months old today! Remember if you have any need for anything digital and design related do drop us a line!

www.jonwallacedesign.com

Next up it's Chloe who is One in 13 days time!!!! (Oh and myn in 4 days... ;])

» Ivy House Interiors website launch

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Wallace) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:13:00 +0000

We have just launched the new Ivy House Interiors website, featuring a luxury blend of SEO optimised XHTML, CSS, Javascript and mouth-watering design. Check it out -> www.ivyhouseinteriors.co.uk

Remember if you need a website, or your old tired site refreshed to come up to today's standards, do drop us a mail!